Dragonfly is one of NASA’s newest missions to explore the solar system by landing an 8-bladed rotorcraft on Saturn’s largest and richly organic moon, Titan. The mission is currently scheduled for launch in 2027 and arrival in 2034, where it will sample and examine dozens of promising sites around Titan and continue to advance our search for the building blocks of life.
The two primary science goals of the Dragonfly mission are to identify chemical components and processes that have a chance to produce biologically relevant compounds or possible molecular biosignatures. These objectives are addressed by the Dragonfly Mass Spectrometer (DraMS), which performs molecular analysis on surface samples that are acquired and delivered by the Drill for Acquisition of Complex Organics (DrACO).
MACH 33 Engineering actively provides support for DraMS and is involved in integration of the pumping system. Working along with Creare- the manufacturers of the Wide Range Pump, MACH’s team receives the WRP and performs tests to characterize its performance to meet DraMS’s requirements.
Dragonfly took advantage of 13 years’ worth of Cassini data to choose a calm weather period to land, along with a safe initial landing site and scientifically interesting targets.
Ref. site (‘https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasas-dragonfly-will-fly-around-titan-looking-for-origins-signs-of-life’)